ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Marco Torsello, Federica Serrantoni, Lucia Pontremoli and Gregorio Baldoli, ArbLit
as provided by Article 492-bis of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) (see 2.4 Post-Judgment Procedures for Determining Defendants’ Assets ). This kind of search extends to registries that are not directly accessible to private parties, such as registries held by the national tax authorities.
On a different note, decisions also differ depending on whether: • they completely define the entire subject matter in dispute – thus deciding all of the parties’ claims ( sentenze definitive ); or • they merely resolve certain preliminary issues or a portion of the merits of the claim, without address - ing the whole thema decidendum – thus allowing the proceedings to continue in order to assess these additional profiles ( sentenze non definitive ). Italian law also allows the court to issue – before reaching the final stage of the proceedings – meas - ures that can anticipate, to some extent, the effects of the decision on the merits. Specifically, these are: • the order for payment of undisputed amounts (see Article 186-bis of the CCP); • the injunction for payment or delivery, issued in so far as written proof of the claim is provided (see Article 186-ter of the CCP); and • the order following the evidentiary phase, issued if – at the end of such stage – the court consid - ers that the claim is already supported by proof, in whole or in part (see Article 186-quater of the CCP). Such orders, albeit subject to possible revocation by virtue of the judgment, are immediately enforceable (if so expressly declared, in cases under Article 186-ter of the CCP). It is worth mentioning that the recent reform of Ital - ian procedural rules introduced additional measures aimed at deflating litigation and speeding up the set - tlement of proceedings, allowing the court to issue orders granting (Article 183-ter of the CCP) or reject - ing (Article 183-quater of the CCP) the claim if – in the course of the trial (typically, but not exclusively, follow - ing the first hearing) – it becomes apparent that either the facts constituting the claim are proven and the defences of the other party appear to be manifestly unfounded (Article 183-ter of the CCP) or the claim is blatantly ungrounded (Article 183-quater of the CCP). In both cases, the order issued by the court – albeit being provisionally enforceable (in so far as it upholds
2. Domestic Judgments 2.1 Types of Domestic Judgments
Under Italian law, decisions rendered as a result of ordinary proceedings differ according to the nature of the determination made by the court and the sub - ject matter of the ruling. Specifically, judgments are divided into: • judgments merely aimed at establishing whether a right exists or does not exist ( sentenze di mero accertamento ); • judgments ordering the debtor to pay an amount or to do something or, in any case, granting the creditor another form of relief that may be enforced ( sentenze di condanna ); and • judgments that create, modify or extinguish certain rights or legal situations, which necessarily require the intervention of a court to that effect ( sentenze costitutive ). All the aforementioned decisions are subject to appeal and, under certain conditions, may also be challenged before the Italian Supreme Court. If the decision is no longer subject to any of the ordi - nary appeals listed in Article 324 of the CCP – either because the parties exhausted the appeals available or because they failed to activate them within the rel - evant time limits – such decision will acquire res judi - cata effect, thus becoming final and binding for the parties, their heirs and successors in title. As a general rule, sentenze di condanna are imme- diately enforceable, even if they are still subject to or have already been appealed and are therefore not yet final and binding. Conversely, both sentenze di mero accertamento and sentenze costitutive may be enforced only in so far as they acquired res judicata effect.
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